Measuring computer system utilization with a hardware and a hybrid monitor

Abstract

Computer system utilization is generally measured in terms of the utilization of individual system components and the overlap of activities of two or more system components. This type of data can be used to construct a system performance profile [BONN 69, COCI 71, SUM 70]. Utilization of a system component is obtained as the ratio (unit busy time)/(total elapsed time). If a particular unit performs more than one type of operation, the unit busy time may be further divided into portions corresponding to different activities and an activity profile can be constructed for each such unit. For a storage unit, information about utilization of different portions of storage might be desirable in addition to utilization of this unit as a whole. A space utilization profile Can be developed in this case. To cover both cases, the term unit utilization profile is used.